Monday, April 16, 2007
The Old Port must be saved from itself before it swallows all of Portland into a spiraling, drunken hell-mouth, with cover bands and top 40 DJs marching it along.
So it goes.
While friendly and inviting during the day, with its boutiques, specialty shops and knickknackery, the Old Port becomes a different place once the sun sets.
There are the fights, public drunkenness, unruly crowds and a pervasive mix of danger and shame that makes anything possible. Or that's the perception.
While having booze and live music are important to having a good bar scene, the two can sometimes produce problems.
For the better part of a year, businesses on the peninsula and City Hall have debated what, if anything, can save the savage playground that some say is the Old Port after dark.
Two weeks ago, the Portland City Council voted to raise more money for police and liquor enforcement, while also putting in place a few new rules to increase the distance between bars and separate the under-age set from the drinkers.
Under one new rule, you've got to be 21 years old to be in bars with after-hours entertainment licenses, which can stay open after last call at 1 a.m. Before, it was 18-plus. At after-hours spots without liquor licenses, the rule is 18 and older.
If you can imagine, the two city councilors most likely to have spent time in the Old Port, David Marshall and Kevin Donoghue, voted against the new distance rules. The two 20-something councilors were joined by the 50-something Cheryl Leeman in opposing the ordinance that requires any bars that have liquor licenses and entertainment licenses to be at least 100 feet away from each other, door to door.
In this case, "any bar" means bars and clubs between Franklin Arterial and State Street and Congress Street, down to the water. The rule does not apply to existing bars.
But Donoghue and Marshall don't see the Old Port bars and the people who go there as a growing menace. If anything, it's an important part of what makes Portland, well, Portland.
"It sends a message to everybody that the City Council is interested in quieting things down in the Old Port," Marshall said.
Marshall said the collection of bars near each other is part of what draws young people from across Maine and around the country to Portland. For a state that struggles to find much else to attract or keep young people, that's important, he said.
Marshall said there's no argument that drinking can cause a need for more policing and enforcement of liquor laws.
"There are crazy things that happen in the Old Port, but on a general basis it's a lot safer than some people think it is," he said.
Instead of taking a blanket approach of dealing with problems like lack of liquor law enforcement or rowdiness in the Old Port, the city needs to examine things on a case by case basis, he said.
One of the problems is that not all bars are the same -- there are different management styles, stronger pours or looser ID checks depending on where you go.
Marshall said the city has to have a vibrant nightlife, or risk seeing its young people go elsewhere.
"It's really the only place in the state that you have a night scene like this," he said.
Donoghue said there's no hard evidence that distancing the bars will make a difference in the city. But he worries the short-term consequences mean squeezing any future bars out of the Old Port, he said.
As Donoghue sees it, the Old Port can suffer from a perception problem by people who don't spend a lot of time there.
"If you don't have an intimate relationship with downtown Portland, what's great about it and its nightlife, you see it as 'The Problem,'" he said.
The bar scene in the Old Port and the rest of Portland isn't just about drinking and having fun for young people -- it's necessary to making social connections, Donoghue said.
While people may have gone bowling or joined fraternal clubs in the past, for this generation of artists, entrepreneurs and other young professionals, having a drink at Rosie's, Bull Feeney's or any place else is a form of networking, he said.
Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't fun.
"I like to know I have the ability to enjoy myself with others whenever and wherever I like," Donoghue said.
Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380. See his blog at www.pressherald.com.
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My after-dark experiences in the Old Port have been much more in line with the even-handed description offered by Bob Hiram. The food and drink are decent, the movies better than what's in the 'burbs, the energy is lively if sometimes overboard toward the wee hours. But, a microcosm of American doom? Well, if that's our doom, I'll take it, though admittedly, bad cover bands can be problematic. Anyway, thank you Bob Hiram for the the antidote to VoiceO's tired, apocalyptic update of "Reefer Madness."report abuse
The other thing to remember is that the young people who frequent the Old Port now are from a generation where drugs and drinking are not only a given, but if it's not done to excess, it's not done right.
The people are what make the Old Port or any night life scene. The people frequenting the Old Port are rude, immature, and dangerous.
The Old Port is a a microcosm of life in America. It's going down hill fast without any way to stop it because of the immorality, stupidity, and rude behavior of the current younger generation.report abuse
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